NEW DELHI/BANGALORE: After directing University of Delhi to scrap its four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), the University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to discontinue its Bachelor of Science (BS) course, which was started in 2011.
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that two other higher education institutions - Symbiosis International University (Pune) and Shiv Nadar University (Noida) - were conducting four-year arts and science programmes. “The UGC has reported that these universities have been asked to discontinue such programmes and follow the UGC notification on specification of degrees,” she said.
The FYUP at Delhi University sparked heated academic debates, resulting in the UGC issuing a notification that degree courses should follow the three-year structure.
‘Course to Remain as of Now’
The BS course at IISc has been running successfully, attracting students from all over the country with more than 400 students enrolled at present. The course is organised into eight semesters covering biology, chemistry, environmental sciences, materials, mathematics and physics disciplines.
“We have received communication from the UGC, but we have not been asked to either discontinue the course or change it to the three-year format. The first letter we received was asking for information and the second one asking why we are offering this course. So as of now, the course remains,” said Chandan Dasgupta, Dean, undergraduate programmes.
In the event that the UGC asks the institute to discontinue the course, Prof Dasgupta told Express that students’ interests would be taken care of. “We have four batches now and we will make sure they go out with an appropriate degree,” he said.
Krishnan S Iyer, a fourth year student of the BS course, does not want the course to be discontinued.
“This course is helping students get exposure, especially in the field of basic sciences. Even the industry prefers people who come from the interdisciplinary approach and it is one of the few programmes in the country that incorporates research at the UG level,” said Iyer, who aspires to pursue higher studies in biophysics.
Irani said the UGC had also sought information regarding the conduct of FYUP from Azim Premji University, O P Jindal University in Sonepat, B R Ambedkar University in Delhi and Ashoka University in Sonepat.
“The UGC wrote to us a couple of weeks ago asking if we are offering FYUP. We replied that we run only two postgraduate programmes, one in education and another in development. We have no idea why the UGC wrote to us,” said S Giridhar, registrar of Azim Premji University.